


Did You See Them, Lying Side by Side?

by ArdentAspen2, Chess_Blackfyre



Series: Galahad Dulak: Space Doctor and Rare Emotionally Stable Jedi [4]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Canonical Character Death, Gen, Hurt No Comfort, Post-Battle of Geonosis
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-19
Updated: 2020-03-19
Packaged: 2021-03-01 04:15:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 986
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23209126
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArdentAspen2/pseuds/ArdentAspen2, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chess_Blackfyre/pseuds/Chess_Blackfyre
Summary: By the age of twenty-three, Galahad had attended exactly two pyres in her life. The pyre of Qui-Gon Jinn, and the pyre of the Jedi killed during the battle of Geonosis. She honestly wasn’t sure which was worse.
Series: Galahad Dulak: Space Doctor and Rare Emotionally Stable Jedi [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1664269
Comments: 8
Kudos: 86





	Did You See Them, Lying Side by Side?

**Author's Note:**

> So. This is angsty. Forgive me.
> 
> Title taken from Les Mis: "Did you see them lying where they died?  
> Someone used to cradle them and kiss them when they cried.  
> Did you see them, lying side by side?"

By the age of twenty-three, Galahad had attended exactly two pyres in her life. The pyre of Qui-Gon Jinn, and the pyre of the Jedi killed during the battle of Geonosis. She honestly wasn’t sure which was worse.

She had known Master Qui-Gon, the Jedi who found her and brought her to the Temple in the first place. The one who encouraged her curiosity, who winked at her stubbornness, who actually engaged with her questions and answered them beyond just the scope of Ordained Jedi Wisdom. Who would smile at her when he didn't know the answer, and admit as much. The same man who had gone to Naboo with Obi-Wan, rolling his eyes at what was sure to be another boring trade negotiation. Who had returned from Tatooine, speaking of Sith Lords and Chosen Ones, excitement and certainty radiating in the Force around him. Who had gone to Naboo, and returned in a tarp.

They had gathered, the Jedi Order. Master Yoda, Master Windu, Obi-Wan, now a knight, and the boy--the Chosen One, apparently--standing beside him. The Queen of Naboo and the Chancellor himself coming to pay their respects. But Galahad barely registered any of them, her eyes were situated squarely on the pyre.

Master Sinube held her hand as they lit the pyre. She wouldn't cry now, crying would come later when she could be alone, and no one would call her out on being a bad Jedi. Who would just tell her that he was one with the Force now. She watches as skin, bone, and cloth are all burned into ash. Crying would come in three days when she's on laundry duty and finds an outer robe in the dryer. The human girl doesn't know it's Qui-Gon's, doesn't have the gift of psychometry like Vos, but she takes it anyway because it's the right size and she wants _something_ to cling to. They say one robe is the same as another. But the species with heightened senses, they know that robe doesn't smell like the cleaning solvent, and it doesn't smell like Dulak. Something like sandalwood, and smoke, and freshly-turned earth. (Sinube would graciously pretend not to notice that his charge had acquired an extra, one easily three sizes too big for her).

The woodsmoke covered the smell of burning flesh, and she clings to her crechemaster's hand.

At thirteen, this was Galahad's first taste of loss.

* * *

At twenty-three, this was Galahad's first taste of war.

Geonosis was supposed to be simple. They were supposed to arrive, and the Geonosians would surrender or flee at the sight of dozens of Jedi Knights, lightsabers lit. The MediCorps presence was supposed to be a formality. (Oh, how foolish they were.) Galahad was forced to rip up tunics to make tourniquets, trying to treat the wounds of a battlefield when the most she had expected were concussions and broken arms.

She had been unable to help the Jedi--those who died passed away in the heat of battle, too far away for her to help. Her patients were the clone troopers. The Grand Army of the Republic that no one had known about, but arrived with Master Yoda for this grand rescue mission. Men with identical faces, whose presence in the Force was a strange mixture of soldier and child. So many of them died underneath her hands, dying for a Republic that they hadn't even _seen_.

They were still bringing in wounded when the time came for the pyre. She was exhausted, dirty, with blood and sand and all sorts of other kinds of awful covering her clothes. The healer was convinced that she would never feel clean again.

Yoda was the one who summoned her from the medical tent. It wasn't far from where they had placed the bodies. "Honor the dead, we must." He said, shaking his head. "Come together, mourn together, the Jedi will." Yoda, the ultimate grandmaster of the Jedi Order. Yoda who taught the younglings and advised the Masters. Yoda who seemed like he could do anything. Yoda, who stood before the bodies, dozens of them piled together to burn, and had never looked so small or so old.

On the other side of him was Obi-Wan Kenobi, who they had come to save. Obi-Wan whose mental shields were only this tight when he really, really didn't want you to know how he was feeling. Anakin was nowhere to be seen, likely escorting the Senator of Naboo off to wherever she needed to be. While it wasn't the Proper Jedi thing to do, Gal reached over and placed a hand over his shoulder. The Master looked over at her and gave a small nod, and her hand falls back to her side.

Despite the victory, Geonosis was still a Separatist World, and they couldn't afford to take all of the bodies back to Coruscant for a proper funeral at the Temple. Couldn't afford to waste time with rites for the dead when the living needed their attention so much more. A desert world had very little wood. They burned the bodies with LAAT/i fuel.

Qui-Gon's pyre held the sting of close personal loss, losing a good friend, a man who had been like another parent to her. This one held the sting of war, and of the beginning of many, many terrible things.

(She doesn't know yet, what's to come. Wait until the thick of the war when they can't make pyres, it'll alert the enemy. Wait until the trenches, full of boys who never knew the love of a mother or father, won't have anyone but their brothers to mourn them.)

Galahad Dulak closes her eyes, and let her grief wash over her. Behind her shields, she mourns the loss of peace in the galaxy, and for the untold death and grief that would soon come upon billions of others. 

The Clone Wars had begun.

**Author's Note:**

> Yeah...
> 
> That was really, really sad.
> 
> Full credit to ArdentAspen2 for the title, and for being an absolutely lovely co-author!  
> If you have any thoughts/questions/just want to scream your feelings at me, comment below and let me know!


End file.
